Brazil has a Donald Trump, and his chances at the presidency

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>Bolsonaro, who represents Rio de Janeiro in Brazil’s House of Representatives, has been steadily making racist, homophobic, and xenophobic claims since he entered politics in 1988.

>And just when one might think his latest claim has crossed a line that will hurt him in the polls, his popularity rises.

>Bolsonaro said he’d “rather have a dead son over a gay son.”

>Bolsonaro is taking advantage of two separate forces pushing him up in the polls. First, the ongoing revelations and indictments from a historic corruption probe has led to a culling of establishment politicians and created space for non-traditional, non-establishment candidates like Bolsonaro to fill that void.

>The second force propelling Bolsonaro is Brazil’s evangelical movement, whose main political strategy is to win the presidency. In Congress, the Evangelical Bloc has become increasingly powerful, with the majority of its members voting to impeach Dilma Rousseff last year dedicating their votes “to God” in the nationally televised proceedings. In 30 years, the percentage of Brazilians who identify as evangelical Christians went from 6.6% to 22.2%—the largest growth amongst different religious denominations.

>Earlier this year, Bolsonaro was welcomed at an airport in Paraiba, a state in the northeast of the country, with chants: “Mito, Mito, Mito” (Legend, Legend, Legend)

https://qz.com/1003000/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-has-a-donald-trump-and-his-chances-at-the-presidency-are-looking-better-every-day/